Sliding Door Sneakers

One of the things I obsess about is my decision making. Being a religious person I attempt to listen to God and hope that I make the decision that falls into ‘The Great Plan’ he’s laid out for me and my family. And sometimes those heavenly nudges aren’t very clear cut at all. In fact some of them are down right frustrating.

Enough of the righteous gobbledy-gook, let me illustrate my point…

We awoke Monday morning to wet streets, soggy grass and grumpy attitudes. It all came to a head when I asked my son to find his shoes, five minutes before we needed to leave for school. A thorough topsy-turnover of the house produced no sneakers (his ONLY school shoes).

Five minutes later, he had the brilliant idea that his sneakers were somewhere outside. Sure enough, seconds later he produced two of the wettest shoes on the planet. With no time to dry them we had to go with plan B, which were his ratty sneakers from this summer that barely fit.

I was fuming. It was late, raining and traffic was going to be a monster. As I approached the base of the bridge/overpass to make the left turn to his school’s neighborhood there was a six car accident with rescue squad and police just arriving on the scene.

An accident that in all likelyhood could have happened five minutes before. An accident that we could have been in, if it weren’t for the missing shoes.

I apologized* to my son for being upset about the shoes and promised to go shoe shopping that afternoon so that he would always have 2 pairs of shoes for school.

The whole way home I thought about the shoe incident over and over. It wasn’t as simple as my son forgetting his shoes outside. It was definitely more than that. Fate/God’s Hand definitely played a part.

For those of you not overly religious, this is one of those Sliding Doors moments:

IF the shoes were nice and dry in the house = car accident = no car = possible injuries = money problems.

So next time something gets you frustrated and you’re running late or things aren’t going your way, be thankful. This is God’s/Fate’s way of preventing something terrible down the line.

Oh…and my son is now the proud owner of the current wet/dry sneakers as well as two other pairs!

*Any time we have a disagreement or the kids get lectured in the mornings, I ALWAYS apologize before they get out of the car. It’s a good way to restart the morning and hopefully allows them to have a good day.